Cardinals in the garden
startled when I spotted them
nestling with the starlings,
those speckled, restless darlings.
Old world seed-eating songbird.
Are you somber in slumber?
Are you stronger in numbers?
Are you starving with hunger?
The tanagers are managing
to prove themselves as scavengers
but the old oak tree.
They’re opening up
all of the acorn seeds,
stealing them in high quantity.
From the sterling silver-colored squirrels,
with their shaded earl-grey bushy tails.
All the tanagers,
all the tanagers,
all the tanagers…
those brightly colored chested males…
So go forth,
fourth son.
You were not the chosen one.
Go forth,
fourth son.
You were not the chosen one.
By birth, there was before you
the first, the second, and third.
No place in the estate,
no duty in the church.
No work, no worth, no work,
no work, no worth, no work.
No title to inherit,
no bounty, child, no merit.
But take your coat of arms and bear it.
Marlet stuck against a star-lit sky
never settles…
well, his prize is to quest
for the rest…of…his…life…